Cain says he ‘won’t run away from criticism’ in push for Fed seat

Herman Cain said Thursday that he intends to pursue a spot on the Federal Reserve Board and will not “run away from criticism.”

Cain said in a Fox Business Network interview that he will not withdraw from consideration for a Fed nomination, floated by President Trump this month, even though he appears to lack the votes needed in the Senate and the White House says it is interviewing for replacement nominees.

“This noise chamber causes a lot of people, including senators, to get wishy-washy, but it doesn’t cause me to want to withdraw,” Cain said on “Varney & Co.”

{mosads}“I’m not withdrawing. That’s not my nature,” he added.

GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Mitt Romney (Utah), Cory Gardner (Colo.) and Kevin Cramer (N.D.) said last week they would not vote for Cain, all but dooming his potential nomination.

With four of the 53 Senate Republicans opposed to Cain and others lobbying behind the scenes against his nomination, he would need the support of all other GOP senators and a Senate Democrat to be confirmed, an unlikely prospect.

Cain said Thursday he was undeterred by the backlash to his nomination and was “simply not going to allow“ critics to derail his bid.

“Their reservations do not cause me to run away,” Cain said. “Three of the four, Stuart, have never met me, I haven’t met them, and I doubt if they know anything about my background. So, I don’t run away from criticism.”

Republicans have expressed concerns about Cain’s character and background, citing the multiple allegations of sexual harassment that derailed his 2012 presidential bid.

Cain was accused of sexual harassment by four women who worked for him at the National Restaurant Association, a Washington, D.C. trade group he led form 1996-1998. He has denied all of the allegations, but reached settlements with two of his accusers.

“There is no ‘there’ there with my past behavior with women,” Cain said, calling the claims “unfounded and not true.”

“The Democrats are going to want to try to embarrass me, but they’re not going to embarrass me because I’m not going to allow them to turn my confirmation, if I get there, into a circus,” Cain added.

While Trump and his aides have remained somewhat supportive of Cain, the White House appears to be nudging him toward withdrawing his name from consideration.

Larry Kudlow, director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters Tuesday that the administration is interviewing other potential Fed nominees to replace Cain and Stephen Moore, whom Trump also said he would appoint to the bank. Neither has been formally nominated.

“I think at the end of the day, it will probably be up to Herman Cain to stay in that process or not,” Kudlow said. “As far as we’re concerned, he’s still in that process and it’s proceeding in an orderly way.”

Cain responded in a Wednesday interview that “what Kudlow was doing was giving me an out, and I appreciate that, but I don’t want an out.”

“You know that the president is a fighter, and Kudlow is a fighter. They might be getting a lot of blowback from some folks, I don’t know. But I don’t think they’re getting uncomfortable with it,” Cain told The Wall Street Journal.